This section summarises the Department’s achievements for 2005-06. The section expands what the Registrar General has highlighted in his foreword (section 2), and summarises the detailed objectives and key performance measures that are listed by business area in Section 6. This section is reproduced almost word for word in our annual accounts to make them free-standing at a high level.
At the start of the year we set out, in our management plan (GROSPlan 2005-06), our key objectives for the year. These objectives are the ones that will bring about noticeable improvements in our service delivery, or will make our back-office operations more efficient. During the year these key objectives were mostly met, thanks to many excellent team and individual contributions. This is a report of the main achievements against the year’s targets. At the same time, our routine business continued, with service levels maintained and often improved.
Registration Services legislation
On 22 June 2006 the Scottish Parliament approved the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Bill - the most significant registration legislation since 1965. The Bill received Royal Assent on 1 August 2006. The Act gives GROS the powers needed to modernise Scotland’s registration service. The revised service will make registration more convenient to users, and will allow registration information to be collected in different ways and shared more effectively. This year was spent reviewing the results of consultation on the draft Bill, combining it with local electoral administration provisions and then managing the combined Bill through the Parliamentary process. Work has now started on bringing the main provisions of the Act into force on 1 January 2007 and on defining the requirements for an e-Registration service for implementation when we are satisfied that proper security against fraud is in place.
Civil Partnership Act 2004
The provisions in the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force on 5 December 2005. Civil Partnership is a new legal relationship, which gives same sex couples the ability to obtain legal recognition for their relationship for the first time. Same-sex couples who form a civil partnership now have parity of treatment with those opposite-sex couples who enter into a civil marriage, in a wide range of legal matters. By the end of the financial year, 343 partnerships had been registered in Scotland.
Annual Examinations of Registration Offices
Since the introduction of statutory registration in 1855, local authorities have been required to record details of births, deaths and marriages occurring in their area. These events are recorded in Registration Offices which are staffed by Registrars who are employed by the local authority, and work to rules and standards prescribed by GROS. We are ultimately responsible for the quality of the registration process and we employ staff to annually examine the statutory registers. This year we reviewed the way we carry out examinations, to develop a more contemporaneous method (rather than waiting until the end of the year before beginning the examination) by making better use of the information collected electronically during the registration process. We also changed the structure of the examination team to include assistant examiners. Our internal auditors reviewed the examination process early in 2006 and gave "comprehensive assurance" that it operates to a high standard. They had no substantial points to raise following their review.
DIGROS project
Our strategy is to make our entire database of historical records available to our customers as digital images with supporting indexes. In 2001, Scottish Ministers approved the finance to implement the DIGROS programme (Digital-Imaging of the Genealogical Records of Scotland's people). By the end of March 2006 we had, to all intents and purposes, completed the project, although we were generating fresh indexes to the Old Parish Registers (OPRs).
We have been adding these captured images and indexes to our database which we present to customers in New Register House, Edinburgh; to registrars and customers in local registration offices using the link needed for the registration process; and to genealogists worldwide on our pay-per-view website. Notably, this year we added divorces, "minor records" (eg consular returns of events registered overseas) and an index to the Register of Corrections. The one significant set of digital images and indexes that we have still to make available on the website is the OPRs. We are currently cleaning the index data and plan to make the OPRs available in 2006-07.
The Student Awards Agency for Scotland and the UK Identity and Passport Service continue to access the DIGROS information to enable paperless verification of birth details. The Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006 will allow us to make birth and death information available in a similarly efficient way to other organisations (eg Disclosure Scotland).
The ScotlandPeople website
Our family history research website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) continued to increase in popularity over the year. The number of paid accesses increased further during the year, earning more than £2.3 million for GROS. There was a notable increase in use and income when images from the National Archives of Scotland (historical Wills and Testaments) were made available on the website in June 2005.
The Scottish Family History Service
This partnership between GROS, the National Archives of Scotland (NAS) and the Court of the Lord Lyon started in 2002. The records of all three partners are being combined to create a "one stop shop" for family history research, both physically at the Register House centre and over the internet. Genealogical tourism has been identified as a significant niche market by Visit Scotland and our service will provide a catalyst for growth in this area.
This year the major upgrades to the accommodation and grounds at the centre were started. However, in April 2006 the main contractor (Peter Walker Group) went into receivership. This has been major blow to the project and, even with contingency plans in place, it has taken us time and effort to complete nearly finished work, to undertake other work to allow us to cope with visitor demand during the summer months and to find another main contractor. A new contract is expected to be in place by the end of September 2006. Nevertheless, other aspects of the project have progressed well (eg development of the computer system that will be at the heart of the service) and the centre should be open in autumn 2007.
2001 Census
We continued to release more statistics from the 2001 Census. The main outputs published during the year were the Gaelic Report, a DVD containing the full set of published data and a new version of Census Bulk Supply data. In addition, the vast majority of published Census tables using the new Westminster Parliamentary Constituency boundaries were made available on the GROS website. During the year we responded to around 1,700 requests for information on the Census and other demographic subjects.
Work was started on the production of a paper on travel to work or study, which should be published in autumn 2006. The publication of reports on the quality of data from the 2001 Census progressed more slowly than planned and, as a result, it was shortly after the end of the year before reports on the quality of Census variables and papers on the answers given to the 2001 Census ethnicity question were placed on the GROS website.
2011 Census
Planning for the 2011 Census continued during the year. Preparations were made for a test of a revised questionnaire and enumeration methods on 23 April 2006. The test covered 50,000 households in parts of Glasgow City, West Dunbartonshire, Highland, Stirling, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute Council areas. The results of the test are currently being analysed and will inform the continuing development of the 2011 Census.
We also worked closely with the Office for National Statistics and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (responsible for the Census in England & Wales and Northern Ireland respectively) to ensure that UK-wide information will be easily available and to ensure best value for money. A particular example of this was the study that we carried out in autumn 2005 to determine our best approach for the procurement of major computing and allied services for the 2011 Census. We decided that the most effective way of obtaining value for money, ensuring consistency of outputs within the UK, and managing the risk associated with such a large project was to enter into a joint procurement exercise with the other two UK Census Offices. This procurement is well underway and we have made a major contribution to the process.
Finally, investigations continued into alternatives to conventional Census data such as administrative data and sample surveys. Alternative data sources were identified and we carried out assessments comparing Census data and population estimates with Scottish Executive (SE) information about children at school; HMRC information on children receiving child benefit; DWP data on people aged 65 and over; and DVLA records on car ownership. We published the results of a fruitful data matching project involving Census and health records (particularly the Community Health Index). We also continued to work closely with the University of St Andrews on a Scottish Longitudinal Study that is designed to create a valuable research resource for the study of social and demographic change through record linkage
Demographic Statistics
Our Annual Report (the Registrar General’s Annual Review of Demographic Trends) was published on 29 July 2005. This edition had special significance as it was the 150th Annual Report that had been produced since GROS was established in 1855. As in past years, the Report highlighted trends in births, deaths and marriages. This year a chapter was dedicated to describing the changes in Scotland’s demography over the past century and a half. The Report showed that Scotland's population rose slightly in 2004 - by 21,000 people. We also prepared and published other pre-planned demographic statistics (eg population estimates) by the promised dates. With demographic issues of increasing Governmental and public interest, the publication of the Annual Report, and our other publications especially the forward projections of population, again attracted considerable attention. An important use of our demographic statistics has been the Futures Project – a programme of work being managed by the SE to assess some of the key challenges and opportunities that Scotland might face over the next 20 years or so.
We continued to consult with our stakeholders to improve our existing statistical outputs and develop new products. We developed an improved methodology for producing estimates of the number of households and published new figures for 2004 and 2005. In May 2006 we produced projections of the number of households which included new analysis and covered a longer period of time than previous projections.
Geographic Information Services
For the last 25 years we have maintained a database of Scottish postcode boundaries which is unique within the UK. These boundaries, linked with digital maps and other geographic data, have enabled us to create a valuable geographic information service which we and others use to prepare statistical outputs (we also use it to plan the enumeration areas in the Census). This year we started the modernisation of this service, through the introduction of new software, to make the information more usable and more readily available to support statistical analyses.
National Health Service Central Register (NHSCR)
Following a review of the location of the NHSCR as part of the SE’s policy of moving work outside Edinburgh, much of the year was spent managing the relocation to temporary premises at the Crichton Campus, Dumfries. The relocation was completed on time in March 2006, without interruption to the service provided to the NHS and other customers. A move to the unit’s permanent home within the Crichton Campus will take place in spring 2007.
We participated in a feasibility study and then a pilot exercise to consider the use of the NHSCR as the population index for Scottish local authorities, similar to its long-established function for the NHS. As a result, the NHSCR was used to help issue over 800,000 entitlement cards, giving old age pensioners and people with a disability access to the new national travel concession scheme. This was a major job, and it is the biggest scheme of this kind in the UK. The NHSCR played an important part in this, by matching applicants for the card with their NHSCR record, thereby allowing the local authorities to use the NHS number as the unique personal identifier for the card database.
Corporate Governance and Programme Management
During the period we introduced some minor enhancements to the corporate planning and monitoring process, which is based around our multi-level corporate business plan (GROSplan), and four Divisional Programme Boards reporting to the Departmental Strategy and Planning Group (DSPG). The corporate risk register is a key supporting tool for these Boards and for our Audit Committee.
We took specific steps to improve the preparation of our annual accounts, and our external auditors agreed their effectiveness. We also improved the in-year monitoring and control of expenditure in order to reduce the level of underspend of the previous year (total £1,437K). Our actions were successful and the end-year underspend was reduced to £217K operating costs and £9K capital.
The profile of procurement has been raised in the last couple of years as a result of the Efficient Government Programme, which has set procurement efficiency savings targets for the public sector. This year we decided to review the way we procured goods and services. This review was well timed given the recommendations of the McClelland report on Public Sector Procurement in Scotland which are aimed at achieving the best deal for the taxpayer. We produced a new procurement guide and held supporting seminars for requisitioning and purchasing staff. Our main purchasers received further training and our Procurement Manager started studies for a professional qualification. We also increased our use of e-procurement and the Government Procurement Card. Finally, we combined purchasing resources with the National Archives of Scotland, and we now carry out any major procurements on their behalf.
In 2004-05 we reported a number of notable operational efficiency improvements (eg achieving full occupancy of Ladywell House and joining with the Scottish Executive for security services) and we added to these in a number of less obvious ways this year. The most notable was that we brought cleaning services in-house to improve the quality of the service to ourselves and our tenants, and to achieve cost savings.
To improve the desktop PC and network services to our staff; to achieve some modest cost savings; and, most importantly, to release skilled ICT staff to work on activities that are key to the business of GROS, we joined the SCOTS service that provides general desktop IT services to the SE and a number of agencies. We are now on the same network as the SE and this makes internal communications straightforward. It also means that all support and upgrading of our desktop PCs and the network is carried out by the SE and their contractors. The move to SCOTS was not without its problems, and an internal survey of GROS staff in March 2006 (7 months after the move) showed that there were a number of areas where the service was not reaching user expectations nor meeting the agreed service levels. However, this shared service continues to improve and we are working closely with the SE to make the service more effective for non-core SE bodies such as GROS.
The move to SCOTS did not affect our responsibility for our outward facing business ICT systems such as our on-line registration service for registrars (called FER) and our on-line 2001 Census analysis service (www.scrol.gov.uk). The skilled staff resources that have been released by moving to SCOTS have enabled us to achieve more essential upgrades and highly desirable enhancements to these systems than otherwise would have been possible.
In August 2005 we appointed an Information Manager to coordinate a number of related issues that needed action and to create a single post responsible for Freedom of Information, Data Protection and Information (including ICT) Security. A project to achieve BS 7799 accreditation of the way we safeguard our information has started and is focusing on our most critical business ICT systems.
We continued to seek feedback from customers on our key services and comments were very positive. We succeeded in tackling any shortcomings identified and received very few complaints.
Once again, this year we carried out a survey of all our staff, to which 77% responded (3% less than the previous year but still satisfactory for a survey of this kind). Our strengths highlighted in the survey were that most staff are satisfied with their job; senior management are generally visible; on the whole we keep staff informed about matters that affect them; staff are treated fairly; teamwork is good; and the physical working environment is conducive to productive working. Our main weaknesses were that staff felt that poor performance is not dealt with effectively; that career progression is slow; and that IT services are not adequate. An Action Plan to tackle weaknesses was prepared, in consultation with staff. As with the previous year, progress on the promised actions will be monitored by DSPG.